1. Scope of Invention
This invention generally relates to electrolytic cells, and more particularly to an improved electrolytic cell for electrolysis of water and the production of heat.
2. Prior Art
The present invention utilizes and improves upon microspheres formed of non-metallic beads which are plated with a uniformly thick coating of palladium. These palladium coated microspheres are taught in my previous U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,943,355 and 5,036,031. In these above-recited previous patents, cross linked polymer microspheres forming an inner core and having a plating of palladium thereatop are taught to exhibit improvements in the absorption of hydrogen and isotopes of hydrogen. Utilizing these catalytic microspheres led to my later U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,318,675 ('675) and 5,372,688 ('688) (incorporated herein by reference) which teach an electrolytic cell, system and method for, inter alia, producing heat.
The use of a palladium sheet to form one electrode within an electrolytic cell to produce excess heat, the electrolytic cell being a Pons-Fleischmann-type, is taught by Edmund Storms. The description of the Storms electrolytic cell and his experimental performance results are described in an article entitled Measurements of Excess Heat from a Pons-Fleischmann-Type Electrolytic Cell Using Palladium Sheet appearing in Fusion Technology, Volume 3, Mar. 1993. In a previous article, Storms reviewed experimental observations about electrolytic cells for producing heat in an article entitled Review of Experimental Observations About the Cold Fusion Effect in FUSION TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 20, Dec. 1991.
None of the previously reported experimental results or other prior art devices known to applicant other than my U.S. Pat. Nos. '675 and '688 patents have utilized or disclosed non-conductive copolymeric beads of palladium coated (or any substitute metal which will form "metallic hydrides" in the presence of hydrogen) conductive microspheres within an electrolytic cell for the production of heat and the electrolysis of water into its hydrogen and oxygen components.
The present invention discloses two very important extensions of my previously reported inventions. The first aspect of this invention is with respect to the core material itself. This application discloses and claims solid cores which, for the first time, are made of an active metal which readily combines with hydrogen or an isotope of hydrogen to form a metallic hydride or deuteride. In all my previous work, it had been presumed that the core material had to be of an inert nature. The work of others in the field using solid plates, rods, etc. had encountered rapid deterioration and non-repeatability. The present invention further teaches that, when the core particles are fabricated of such an active metal in combination with my cell and system, the shape need not be spherical but may be of other regular shapes and irregular in shape, including granular and that the sizes of the particles, whether regular or irregular, need not be identical in surface area.